BNAP presents an interview with Fayssal Chafaki, the Poet
from the Kingdom Of Morocco
Who is Fayssal Chafaki
Whenever I am being,
respectively, asked this question, my answer reveals itself this way. I am a
simple farmer, poet, and writer. This humble answer summarizes a great deal of
the poet's life, as it also sheds light upon who Fayssal Chafaki, the Poet of
the Kingdom of Morocco, is. I am a farmer because this is what I have chosen to
be. I am a poet because this is my nature, my inner self, and the reason of my
existence. I am a writer because my modest academic background has granted me,
alongside the composition of poetry since childhood, the ability to write prose
in terms of short stories, articles, novel-attempts, books, and research papers
related to the study of Phonology. (My writings in prose are only in English.)
Fayssal Chafaki, in a sum of words, is a Moroccan Arab poet, whose poetic style
still preserves the norms and conventions of Classical Poetry, both in Arabic
and English, in form and content, but delivers conventionally and conveys
faithfully a modern and contemporary message to a multi-cultural literary
audience. Fayssal Chafaki, the farmer, the poet, and the writer, lives now in
the Western country-side of the Kingdom of Morocco, where he leads a normal
life, yet full of struggle, and where he has devoted himself to revive poetry
and literature which, seemingly, have ceased to play their great and important
role in his country.
Tell us what inspires you to create
To be frank with you, the
one and only thing that inspires me the most will have to be the last thing I
mention to you. I can almost be inspired by anything that surrounds me. Nature
and the farm come first. Then, the fact of being away from the noises of the
city-life is what constantly pushes me to create. I can also compose under any
circumstances and, above all, when I am faced with stress. When I sense danger,
mainly danger that threatens faith, ethics, my homeland, human-being existence
as a whole, or any kind of danger that may menace all of us, I use my pen. I
compose for war, as I compose for peace. Many of my Arabic and English poems
are triggered either by a global, or social, or political event that
necessitates the interference of poetry. Sometimes I can be inspired by a
simple post on social-media sites, an article I've read, a video I have
watched, a comment that made me happy or upset, a kind message or a provoking
insult, an old poem, a beautiful lady, a flower, a bird, an insect, an idea,
simple or complex, a piece of art, a constellation of the stars, the raising
sun, the moon and the clouds, the rain and the winds, the movement of the
seasons, calm and solitude, my adorable spouse, my beloved little daughter, my
dear mother, and even a friend or a person who may request a certain poem for
him or her. At the end, the one and only thing that inspires me the most, and
which I always consider the source and power of my Arabic and English poems, is
the Holy Qur'an.
Above being a poet you are also a farmer and
academic, tell us how you balance these three
I have mentioned the fact
of combining between poetry, writing, and farming into one of my Arabic poems
stating that “By day, my work, a hoe in my hand; and when night comes, it is
my pen.”In truth, farming has never appeared to hinder me from composing my poems, reading, writing, or
conducting research. The farm is not that big enough, so the work there is
easily planned and done. Usually my work in the farm starts early in the
morning and ends with sunset. After the kids go to bed I isolate myself in a
room and begin either to compose a poem, or read, or deal with my writings. I
always find the appropriate moment to be in the company of books, papers, and
pen. I also find time, occasionally, to be on-line and post some of my poems.
Conducting academic research as a farmer and a poet, though demanding, is given
a share of my time, and has never been a heavy task for me. Mainly my academic
research is conducted independently after facing major obstacles from some
university professors. The main focus of my research papers evolves around the
study of sounds in Arabic and Old languages. The life of a farmer is very
simple, and so the life of a poet, or a writer. To balance between these three,
I always feel the need to exert mental effort beside physical one. You may not
recognize me as a poet and a humble educated person when I am wearing my boots
and plowing the land for crops, but when I compose and write you will.
Tell us about your work as a farmer, what
crops you grow or animals you keep etc
The farm, as I mentioned
above, is not that big enough, a four acres land, situated in a plain zone in
the West of the Kingdom of Morocco. The main agriculture we deal with is
seasonal. We grow wheat, corn, beans, carrots, onions, clover, and different
types of vegetables in a system of rotation. In the past ten years and more, we
used to find difficulties with irrigation. In the present day we have been able
to set a small system of drip irrigation that really saves time and effort. As
to animals we keep, for the time being there is only some chicken and few
sheep, as we witnessed a period of drought and lack of cattle feed. During this
actual season, we are planting yellow melon. We are also planning to innovate
our small farming agriculture techniques and methods. The whole work in the
farm is done and managed by my brother and I, and our two small families.
Tell us about the Moroccan poetry and
literary scene, both performance and written
Very recently, the Moroccan
Prime Minister announced that the Kingdom in the future will not be in need of
poets, writers, philosophers, and Men of Letters, but rather will be in need of
people who produce wealth. This is encouraging and dis-encouraging at the same
time. Encouraging in the sense that poets in the Kingdom of Morocco will have
to be more creative than they may happen to be, and of course dis-encouraging
in the sense that poetry and literature are endangered in my country. This
leads us to tackle the issue of Moroccan poetry and the literary scene in
brief. Moroccan poetry possesses a rich poetic and literary heritage. Poets of
the twentieth century like Al Halwi, Al Balghiti, and Bin Brahim will always be
the same great modern poetry figures who have lit the path for many other
poets. Today, unfortunately, there is very few poets like these great ones, if
not even a single one. The reason lies behind the fact that great poets like Al
Halwi, Al Balghiti, and Bin Brahim belong to the Arabic Prosodic Poetry school,
also called Classical Poetry. After these poets and their likes have gone,
Free-verse “poets” have taken the literary scene for a period of three to four
decades with the claim that Moroccan Arabic Classical Poetry is not fit for the
modern world, and, therefore, is dead. As a result to this kind of literary
“conflict” between Free-verse and Classical poetry schools in their Moroccan
Arab context, Moroccan poetry, and Arabic poetry in general, degraded. Poetry
lost huge audiences of ordinary and educated people alike. This made the
literary scene vulnerable to low culture interference, where commercial singing
and dancing festivals, for instance, replaced poetry and literary gatherings.
People's artistic taste in Morocco have deteriorated towards consumable and
ready-made low types of art, leaving poetry and literature into a dark corner
face to face with oblivion. There are of course contemporary Moroccan poets who
also belong to the same prosodic Arabic poetry school but are seldom active in
the literary scene, and if there is any, they do not happen to gather their
efforts and collaborate with each other to bring back poetry on stage. Some
Moroccan poets secure themselves into closed groups and organize their own
events without taking the pain to open their arms to other poets. Some others
are timid. Some are fake. Journalists, critics, university professors, the
Ministry of Culture, and media are also responsible for such grave and dire
situation poetry and literature has reached in the Kingdom of Morocco. Media
platforms and newspapers are for sale. Critics are blocked. University
professors do not care very often. The Ministry of Culture supports everything
but poets' creative work. This is in brief the harsh reality behind the
literary scene in my country. To measure how much does a nation value its
poets, it would be enough to see how many of them are honored by that nation.
My country, I am sorry to say it, values the more all that would help spread
ignorance, not what would enlighten brains. The burden is still upon us, poets,
to bring poetry's fame back.
If you were to be reborn, what form would
you like to return in
If I were to be born again,
I would like to return into nothing but the same Servant of Creator, the same
human being, the same simple poet. I would like some change, yes, but a change
in time and probably in space. I would like to return in time when bards used
to be listened to, respected, counseled, and regarded with high esteem. As to
place, it does not matter. Everywhere there is the High Creator, and everywhere
there is Him, we have a chance to be reborn.
Tell us about your poem, No Wise Man in BNAP
Talking about my poem “No
Wise Man”, or any other poem of mine, is always done with some reservation. I
prefer to leave room for readers, critics, audiences, and potential researchers
to study the poem, or poems, without the interference of the poet, fearing that
my opinion, somehow, about the meaning, the structure, or the whole essence of
the poem would be taken for granted and considered as a final judgment. Yet, I
can always talk about the circumstances under which this particular poem has
seen light and the reason behind composing it. “No Wise Man” is a poem about a
very old so-called political conflict in the North of Africa. The poem is one
among a series of English poems defending the Issue of Moroccan Sahara. “No
Wise Man” points to the issue of the Moroccan Sahara and is considered very
critical for the poet. The Moroccan Sahara for him is an issue of existence,
and in his poem “No Wise Man” he provides evidence to support his right. This
poem, and all the other poems that fall under the title of “Defending the
Moroccan Sahara” explain to what extent the poet is related and linked to this
desert part of his homeland. The poem indicates that the Moroccan Sahara is the
poet's mother and place of birth, mentions the poet's origins as connected to
his Moroccan Sahrawi nomad grandfather, and informs the reader smoothly about
the reality and truth of this so-called conflict. The poet in this poem, “No
Wise Man”, refuses to break his historical ties and bonds with his grandfathers
who constantly live in the Moroccan Sahara. The poet respects the past, lives
the present, and looks for a peaceful tomorrow in the region, as reflected in
his poem. What really triggers the poet to compose poems defending the Moroccan
Sahara is that the poet is born six months before this so-called conflict
started. Prior to 1975 there has been no such dispute and no one has claimed
that the Moroccan Sahara is another nation. During that period the whole
Kingdom of Morocco has been suffering from colonization. The North and the
South is colonized by Spain while the rest is colonized by France. French
colonizers have left the country in 1956 and the Spanish have kept the Moroccan
Sahara under their control until later. We have been colonized, and so many African
countries, and still today there are greedy persons who want to divide our
country. The same tribes that live in the Moroccan Sahara are living all around
the Kingdom today. All these reasons above, and many other ones, are behind the
composition of “No Wise Man”. The poem at the end makes it clear that only a
fool will keep fighting for something that does not belong to him or her, and
that the earth will only be owned by the creator.
What does BNAP represent for you and the
continent at large and what improvements do you want to see in the next BNAP
BNAP is home for me and the
best and unique adobe for African poets. BNAP is a torch of enlightenment the
continent really needs. It has succeeded into bringing African poets together
and presenting them to the world. By this, BNAP has carved a honorable mark in
the field of poetry and literature. BNAP is a new African literary movement
able to carry the universal message of poetry and give Africa a strong voice
among other continents. I will always be happy to see BNAP supporting African
poets and leading them towards success. I certainly hope that future series of
BNAP would welcome more African poets, especially young ones, and would one
day, if possible, include poems in Arabic and Hausa. BNAP is always that heart
that speaks for Africa.
Fayssal Chafaki
The Poet of the
Kingdom of Morocco
04/04/2016
